The Young Captives / A Narrative of the Shipwreck and Suffering of John and William Doyley

e town in two streams between the Erbis and Donat Gates. In the year 1297, an enemy had made treacherous use of this river to enter and plunder the town; and the points of its entrance and exit ha

t the bars one by one, until, to his great delight, he found that the last bar could be quite easily pushed aside, thus leaving an opening through which the slender lad found but little difficulty in forcing his body. As he came to each of the two similar gratings that barred his way farther up the tunnel, he found the same course practicable. He continued to follow the subterranean bed of the stream for some distance farther, until it emerged into the open air again in a tanner's yard, and Conrad could leave the wet path he had followed so long. He did not let the grass grow un

softly, then louder; at last he venture

denly. 'What is it?' she c

g teeth; for by this time the cold seemed to h

in tones of rapture. 'How often have I prayed that God would send you

lean stockings, because mine have got so wet wading along the Münzbach. I have only just

she were still in a dream. 'Have you not been dead these three days?

to get this box? They didn't do me one bit of harm; they didn't even starve me. But they would not let me go and dig in our cellar; they said that was not work for stupid boys. So they did all the digging, and

six inches broad and high, in his mother's ha

y box,' she said. 'And I'm sure

e was right after all

nto the room. 'Ha! is it you, you young good-for-nothing? Where h

pt at a joke; 'and it was on your business, too, that I got so cold. Is th

ne fellow. Give it me here, quick!' c

ried a box with treasure in it. W

d house. And see here, my dream has come true, and no mistake about it. A little mountain-troll dressed, in grey stood before me in my

it,' said Conrad. 'The

chziger, 'so long as we have the box. Do

how it's all nail

ught back the

eft arm. I was not to let a soul see it, he said, except the one from whom I first had it, and

ve sent their poor prisoners a ducat or two that they may get me to buy them a few things. But mind you, don't say a word about it

it. 'You need not go back to your mistress now,' he said, when the packet was safely stowed away. 'Much better st

ery sudden kindness. As he thought about the story of the box and the safe-conduct, it seemed to him to g

risoner of war; Roller was gone. Who was there left that he could trust, but his comrade the Defensioner? Yet how could he get at H

that which guarded the Kreuz Gate. The Freibergers, on their part, were by no means backward in doing their utmost to harass the Swedes. Behind each defensive work as it was shot down, a new one arose. Trenches, palisadoes, covered ways, counter-mines, and batteries were all used as mea

he Defensioner Hillner where he stood at a loop-hole in the tower at the Kreuz Ga

'He is riding his horse right up to the city moat in sheer bravado. Quick, Defensi

his piece in the loop-hole. Just as he had covered the

en, give me your weapon. I will chastise the insolent scoundrel myself.' As he spo

in a tone of entreaty, 'do whatever you please with my life, but I cannot s

it. That weapon, instantly, or-you know the penalty th

at penalty belongs to insubordination; bu

ng the orders of his superior officer? The soldier is a mere machine at the absolute will and disposal of his officer, and must do whatever that officer commands-must kill father, son, or brother whenever he receives ord

weapon, for that one was-my father;-an unnatural father, it is true, who deceived my poor mother, and shamefully deserted her, and made me fight against my fathe

here debating with a traitor, the villain yonder has prudently taken himself out of range.' Defensioner, you will give me your

r coming along the street, closely surrounded by the guard, and followed by a crowd of curious people. The boy stared in astonishment at hearing the ugly word 'traitor' applied to his old comrade, an

's house, where it produced great excitement, the miller, w

of my donkeys. He could have obeyed the commandant's order, aimed his w

etence. What marksman in the whole wide world can say where his bullet shall go, when it is once out of his gun and flying towards a mark that some

iger was a cruel stepfather, a hard struggle had been going on in the boy's mind as to whether it was his duty to bring a te